ATLANTA- Georgia Tech football has just two days of fall camp left after wrapping up practice on Thursday with a shorter two-hour session in shells. The Jackets will scrimmage on Saturday to end fall camp and Tech will begin preparations for Florida State next with a ten-day window before the team arrives in Ireland.
After practice defensive backs coach Cory Peoples spoke to the media with several defensive backs including Tennessee transfer cornerback Warren Burrell who spoke for the first time since joining the program in January from the portal. Veteran safety LaMiles Brooks and corner Ahmari Harvey rounded out the media session.
Peoples said the final scrimmage on Saturday will help set the depth chart in the secondary where the Jackets have several new players aiming to fill roles after head coach Brent Key overhauled the unit following a subpar 2023 season defensively.
"We are going to kind of finalize it Saturday after the final scrimmage of the fall and we will get more into our two-deep and we kind of got a thought process, but we will let it play out on Saturday," Peoples said of the two-deep situation.
Tech has three players with significant starting experience back at the cornerback spot between Harvey and Rodney Shelley who are back from last year and the addition of Burrell from Tennessee as well as Illinois transfer Zachary Tobe who started three games last year in the Big Ten.
Peoples has been pleased with how Burrell who came in January has developed over the last eight months.
"We have a lot of great depth at the cornerback position. (Warren) is grown and he has made a lot of plays for us so far this spring. He is a long, rangy, and smart guy who understands the game with a great I.Q., Warren is doing well," he said.
Shelley gives them position flexibility at the nickel spot as well and he is being mixed in with Omar Daniels who was the primary backup nickel a year ago and Rhode Island transfer Syeed Gibbs.
"Omar is doing pretty good (at nickel), you've got Shelley doing well there as well and Syeed Gibbs as well. All three of them can play the nickel spot and the good thing about those guys is they are swing guys who can go play some safety in some packages and play corner," he said. "Those three guys can all do multiple things for us at the DB positions."
The safety spots at the top are clear with Brooks and Clayton Powell-Lee as returning starters and then sophomores Taye Seymore and D.J. Moore both having a spring of experience in the defense behind those two. Tech also added Cincinnati redshirt freshman transfer Jayden Davis to help bolster competition at the safety spot for 2024.
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Peoples said he feels like the DBs have improved their communication since the spring and that is the major difference he has seen so far, more communication on the field and a whole lot more talking with the whole defense.
Peoples said that Taye Seymore has made a huge jump and he is a lot more comfortable in the defense and is much more comfortable in the defense and when you are comfortable you play faster and you can see the tempo of his game has picked up.
Peoples said that D.J. Moore made that transition from WR to CB last year and now to safety in the spring and he has also made a huge jump from the spring to now. He has great ball skills and getting those two back and adding Jayden Davis from Cincinnati from the portal has been huge for the safety position.
Peoples said they are focused on stacking days right now and there has been a lot of growth from the spring and he said the time has flown as they get ready for the season.
Peoples said the three true freshmen, Nehemiah Chandler (CB), Christian Pritchett (S) and Troy Stevenson IV (NB/CB) are trying to figure it out like any freshman at this point. He added Jayden Davis who is also very young in that mix too and he has seen some growth since fall camp started with them all as new guys.
Peoples said he is very pleased with the competition is good in the DB room and everyone is being pushed by the people behind them.
Peoples said that both Clayton Powell-Lee and LaMiles Brooks have stepped up as leaders in the backend of the defense and as they've gained experience they can use that to help lead.
Peoples said that he has a great relationship with CB coach Ricky Brumfield and they've known each other well before he got to GT and they share a lot of ideas and work together in drills so they can complement each other.
Burrell said he ended up at GT in part due to Brent Key hiring Bill Stewart and two former Tennessee assistants on the strength staff in A.J. Artis and Byron Jerideau. He said when he went in the portal he heard from Coach Stewart who was his HS coach at North Gwinnett as well as A.J. and Byron who asked him if he had thought about GT and if he would like to come over and check it out. Burrell had never been on the GT campus before that visit which he said is crazy in retrospect to him given how close he was to GT and he liked it and what Coach Key had to say and he thought the program was a school on the rise with a need at his spot so he made the call to come to GT.
Burrell said that the situation here reminded him some of the stuff he went through at Tennessee as they transitioned coaches when he was there and that rebuilding process and building up the culture and all of that.
Burrell said that getting to the NFL wasn't a huge driver in his decision because he pointed out there are DBs drafted from everywhere, it was more about the opportunity to play and put good work on tape.
Burrell said that Ahmari is his dog and the whole DB room are guys who would go to bat for. He loves how they welcomed him with open arms when he got here. Ahmari and Warren have been very close since he got to GT.
Burrell said the game in Ireland is amazing to him and he didn't think there would be that much interest in Europe for American college football, but the game is sold out and he thinks it will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience you tell your children about.
I asked Harvey about his rep as a trash talker and he said that is just how he grew up, he said he talks trash playing chess, ping pong, golf or basketball. That is just what people do where he is from and he brings that on the field.
Harvey said he thinks the entire WR room is a tough cover and he jokingly referred to Eric Singleton Jr. as that 10.3 guy, he shouted out Malik Rutherford, Chase Lane, Leo Blackburn as also being guys tough to cover.
Harvey said he had to step up and be more of a leader in the CB room and that is a new role for him but he has embraced it and he is trying to mentor the young guys like Nehemiah Chandler and Cedric Franklin. He sees a lot of himself as a younger player in them and he wants them to be better players and better men.
Harvey said that bringing in Zachary Tobe amped up the competition in the CB room and he reminds him of himself when he came over from Auburn and there are no days off in the CB room now, he feels like they will be one of the best CB rooms in the ACC if not the entire country.
Harvey said he thinks the team is very focused right now in camp on details and they are just fine-tuning minor details instead of having to learn so much like last year. He said that getting those fine details down is what creates margin and success.
Harvey said the trip to Ireland will be his second time leaving the US (he went to Niagra Falls once) and it is a huge blessing because where he is from most people don't even leave the city he grew up in let alone go to another country.
LaMiles Brooks said that camp has been amazing and it is one of the toughest points of the season actually but this has been one of the most fun camps for him and he really likes the identity the team is building and his unit is building right now in his last go around.
Brooks said now him and CP Lee are looked at like they looked at Jay King last year and CP Lee is like he was last year as the older leaders and having the confidence to speak up and he is seeing that from Lee and he fully understands the defense and the young guys know the defense and feel like they can ask them questions.
Brooks said they are talking way more before the play is even signaled understanding the situations pre-snap, the formations, looks and then adjusting to those variables as the final picture takes shape pre-snap. He said they also talk about what happened on the previous play now to make sure they are on the same page.
Brooks said the secondary has embraced the shark identity and they will make a shark signal on their helmets with their hands and they smell blood in the water and they are hunting for anything out there.
Brooks said he isn't worried about people he knows at FSU or any of that stuff anymore, this is his third time playing them and he is looking at it as just another game and nothing greater than that.
Brooks said that Tyler Santucci as a DC is good at predicting situations as a playcaller and getting them in the right packages and calls when things change on the fly like subs happen or they get a strange look from the offense.
Brooks said he likes the helmet comms and how quickly he can get the signal and process it live.
After practice defensive backs coach Cory Peoples spoke to the media with several defensive backs including Tennessee transfer cornerback Warren Burrell who spoke for the first time since joining the program in January from the portal. Veteran safety LaMiles Brooks and corner Ahmari Harvey rounded out the media session.
Peoples said the final scrimmage on Saturday will help set the depth chart in the secondary where the Jackets have several new players aiming to fill roles after head coach Brent Key overhauled the unit following a subpar 2023 season defensively.
"We are going to kind of finalize it Saturday after the final scrimmage of the fall and we will get more into our two-deep and we kind of got a thought process, but we will let it play out on Saturday," Peoples said of the two-deep situation.
Tech has three players with significant starting experience back at the cornerback spot between Harvey and Rodney Shelley who are back from last year and the addition of Burrell from Tennessee as well as Illinois transfer Zachary Tobe who started three games last year in the Big Ten.
Peoples has been pleased with how Burrell who came in January has developed over the last eight months.
"We have a lot of great depth at the cornerback position. (Warren) is grown and he has made a lot of plays for us so far this spring. He is a long, rangy, and smart guy who understands the game with a great I.Q., Warren is doing well," he said.
Shelley gives them position flexibility at the nickel spot as well and he is being mixed in with Omar Daniels who was the primary backup nickel a year ago and Rhode Island transfer Syeed Gibbs.
"Omar is doing pretty good (at nickel), you've got Shelley doing well there as well and Syeed Gibbs as well. All three of them can play the nickel spot and the good thing about those guys is they are swing guys who can go play some safety in some packages and play corner," he said. "Those three guys can all do multiple things for us at the DB positions."
The safety spots at the top are clear with Brooks and Clayton Powell-Lee as returning starters and then sophomores Taye Seymore and D.J. Moore both having a spring of experience in the defense behind those two. Tech also added Cincinnati redshirt freshman transfer Jayden Davis to help bolster competition at the safety spot for 2024.
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Peoples said he feels like the DBs have improved their communication since the spring and that is the major difference he has seen so far, more communication on the field and a whole lot more talking with the whole defense.
Peoples said that Taye Seymore has made a huge jump and he is a lot more comfortable in the defense and is much more comfortable in the defense and when you are comfortable you play faster and you can see the tempo of his game has picked up.
Peoples said that D.J. Moore made that transition from WR to CB last year and now to safety in the spring and he has also made a huge jump from the spring to now. He has great ball skills and getting those two back and adding Jayden Davis from Cincinnati from the portal has been huge for the safety position.
Peoples said they are focused on stacking days right now and there has been a lot of growth from the spring and he said the time has flown as they get ready for the season.
Peoples said the three true freshmen, Nehemiah Chandler (CB), Christian Pritchett (S) and Troy Stevenson IV (NB/CB) are trying to figure it out like any freshman at this point. He added Jayden Davis who is also very young in that mix too and he has seen some growth since fall camp started with them all as new guys.
Peoples said he is very pleased with the competition is good in the DB room and everyone is being pushed by the people behind them.
Peoples said that both Clayton Powell-Lee and LaMiles Brooks have stepped up as leaders in the backend of the defense and as they've gained experience they can use that to help lead.
Peoples said that he has a great relationship with CB coach Ricky Brumfield and they've known each other well before he got to GT and they share a lot of ideas and work together in drills so they can complement each other.
Burrell said he ended up at GT in part due to Brent Key hiring Bill Stewart and two former Tennessee assistants on the strength staff in A.J. Artis and Byron Jerideau. He said when he went in the portal he heard from Coach Stewart who was his HS coach at North Gwinnett as well as A.J. and Byron who asked him if he had thought about GT and if he would like to come over and check it out. Burrell had never been on the GT campus before that visit which he said is crazy in retrospect to him given how close he was to GT and he liked it and what Coach Key had to say and he thought the program was a school on the rise with a need at his spot so he made the call to come to GT.
Burrell said that the situation here reminded him some of the stuff he went through at Tennessee as they transitioned coaches when he was there and that rebuilding process and building up the culture and all of that.
Burrell said that getting to the NFL wasn't a huge driver in his decision because he pointed out there are DBs drafted from everywhere, it was more about the opportunity to play and put good work on tape.
Burrell said that Ahmari is his dog and the whole DB room are guys who would go to bat for. He loves how they welcomed him with open arms when he got here. Ahmari and Warren have been very close since he got to GT.
Burrell said the game in Ireland is amazing to him and he didn't think there would be that much interest in Europe for American college football, but the game is sold out and he thinks it will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience you tell your children about.
I asked Harvey about his rep as a trash talker and he said that is just how he grew up, he said he talks trash playing chess, ping pong, golf or basketball. That is just what people do where he is from and he brings that on the field.
Harvey said he thinks the entire WR room is a tough cover and he jokingly referred to Eric Singleton Jr. as that 10.3 guy, he shouted out Malik Rutherford, Chase Lane, Leo Blackburn as also being guys tough to cover.
Harvey said he had to step up and be more of a leader in the CB room and that is a new role for him but he has embraced it and he is trying to mentor the young guys like Nehemiah Chandler and Cedric Franklin. He sees a lot of himself as a younger player in them and he wants them to be better players and better men.
Harvey said that bringing in Zachary Tobe amped up the competition in the CB room and he reminds him of himself when he came over from Auburn and there are no days off in the CB room now, he feels like they will be one of the best CB rooms in the ACC if not the entire country.
Harvey said he thinks the team is very focused right now in camp on details and they are just fine-tuning minor details instead of having to learn so much like last year. He said that getting those fine details down is what creates margin and success.
Harvey said the trip to Ireland will be his second time leaving the US (he went to Niagra Falls once) and it is a huge blessing because where he is from most people don't even leave the city he grew up in let alone go to another country.
LaMiles Brooks said that camp has been amazing and it is one of the toughest points of the season actually but this has been one of the most fun camps for him and he really likes the identity the team is building and his unit is building right now in his last go around.
Brooks said now him and CP Lee are looked at like they looked at Jay King last year and CP Lee is like he was last year as the older leaders and having the confidence to speak up and he is seeing that from Lee and he fully understands the defense and the young guys know the defense and feel like they can ask them questions.
Brooks said they are talking way more before the play is even signaled understanding the situations pre-snap, the formations, looks and then adjusting to those variables as the final picture takes shape pre-snap. He said they also talk about what happened on the previous play now to make sure they are on the same page.
Brooks said the secondary has embraced the shark identity and they will make a shark signal on their helmets with their hands and they smell blood in the water and they are hunting for anything out there.
Brooks said he isn't worried about people he knows at FSU or any of that stuff anymore, this is his third time playing them and he is looking at it as just another game and nothing greater than that.
Brooks said that Tyler Santucci as a DC is good at predicting situations as a playcaller and getting them in the right packages and calls when things change on the fly like subs happen or they get a strange look from the offense.
Brooks said he likes the helmet comms and how quickly he can get the signal and process it live.
